Researchers from CICANT presented ongoing works at the VII Literacy, Media and Citizenship Congress, held on 27 and 28 November 2025 at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra. Dedicated to the topic "Behavirous, Narratives and Human Rights" the congress - an initiative of the Informal Group on Media Literacy (GILM) - once again brought together academics, media professionals, policy makers and civil society to reflect on the relevance of media literacy in contemporary society.
CICANT's contributions began on 27 November with the presentation by Ana F. Oliveira, Diana Choi Loureiro and Ana Lamy Silva, who presented the paper "Co-creating Citizenship: The role of community networks, cooperation, and intergenerational transmission of values in building civic experience", a work that results from the project STORYline - Shaping Youth Citizenship Through Intergenerational Approaches and Digital Narratives (10.54499/2023.11571.PEX). On the same day, Teresa Sofia Castro, Margarida Maneta and Maria José Brites discussed how young people construct their understanding of the world in algorithmically personalised environments in their presentation "Young people and their view of the world: How do they construct it in environments of algorithmic personalisation?", one of the outputs of the YouNDigital project - Youth, News and Digital Citizenship (PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021).
On 28 November, Maria José Brites joined Annemieke Akkermans (Lie Detectors), Charles Bradley (Google), Nikki Soo (TikTok) and Telmo Gonçalves (ERC) for the plenary session "Media narratives or (mis)informed discourse", Moderated by Vítor Tomé (UAL/ISCTE), the session examined the transformation of media narratives in a context where new actors and formats increasingly blur the boundaries between fact and opinion, with significant implications for public trust in the media.
The second day also featured further research from CICANT. Carla Sousa, Ana Filipa Oliveira and Ana Lamy Silva, in collaboration with Catarina Regra and Viviana Fernandes from EPCV, presented their systematic review on gamification in media education and its implications for platform design. This paper results from the project NwesArcade_Classroom: Seriously play the news in the classroom! Fostering critical thinking in news literacy through gamification in education [Project Number: 101186092]. Additionally, PhD student Margarida Maneta and Maria José Brites discussed digital literacy among older adults in "[Smartphone?] It's like owning a Ferrari but not having a driving licence: People aged 60+ and digital skills" highlighting the challenges and opportunities faced by adults aged 60 and over.
On the same day, researcher Vanessa Rodrigues also participated in a plenary session about Media, Journalism and Human Rights. Together with Bojan Georgievski (Inclusive and Creative Media Education), Matia Losego (Amnesty International Portugal), Matteo Bergamini (Shout Out UK) and Tiago Carrasco (journalist), the session, that was moderated by Fernanda Bonacho (ESCS-IPL/ LIACOM), highlighted the importance of promoting discourses grounded in universal values such as peace and human dignity, in the face of public space fragmentation and the loss of shared reference points.
The strong participation of CICANT researchers in this edition of the congress reaffirmed the centre's commitment to advancing research and public debate on media literacy, civic engagement and digital inclusion, while underscoring its role as a key contributor to national discussions on communication and society.